4EAE ... forever and ever

Oops! I sort of slipped in my own ignorance last week and got spanked for it. We tend to compartmentalize products under a more common name, which has been used in advertising so much it has become a household name. For instance, we don’t ask for a bandage to cover our boo-boo, we ask for a Band-Aid. In like manner we refer to facial tissues as Kleenex, cotton swabs as Q-Tips, and bleach as Clorox, as a sort of “generalization” of brand-name products. I referred to an aerosol string product as Silly String and in the process misrepresented the brand-name product as dangerous. In fact the brand name, made in the USA, is environmentally and user safe. My ignorance of the no- longer-imported knock-off of the brand-name was triggered by once again seeing a couple of short video clips of the illegal imported product warming up some birthday parties. I wish to submit my apologies to Silly String Products and their Spray Streamer product. I need to be more careful comparing whats and what-nots.

I always found it difficult to keep up with the ever-increasing use of letters being used to represent government programs, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and the like. There’s now a whole new language being produced by the electronic, cyber-space, fast-paced world of today. The lingo of acronym-ism is off the charts with netlingo.com alone listing over 1800 texting shorthand acronyms. The one I had to chuckle at when I heard it the other day was, “FOMO” ... Fear Of Missing Out. The average cell phone user sends 200 text messages per month, which includes the average teenager texting 3000-plus messages per month. I grew up being taught that you couldn’t be in two places at once, but I think in the multi-tasking world of today, a person has the opportunity to be in several places at once, in color and in real time. It’s only a matter of time before we discover that UFOs really are futuristic time travelers.

I found it to be a sort of split decision when it comes to the baby boomers embracing, or not, all the gadgets of the 21st century. I was sort of dragged into the new millennium kicking and screaming but have since compromised to accepting and re-educating myself on the basics of the computer evolution and how I can use it without it taking over my whole being. I thought I would share a few senior citizen texting codes with y’all: ATD ... At The Doctors; GGPBL ... Got to Go Pacemaker Battery Low; BFF ... Best Friend Fell; OMSG ... Oh my! Sorry, Gas; TTYL ... Talk To You Louder; GHA ... Got Heartburn Again; BTW ... Bring The Wheelchair; ROFLACGU ... Rolling On The Floor Laughing And Can’t Get Up; FWIW ... Forgot Where I Was.

[Colossians 1:215-24] Many years ago I heard a hook phrase, acronym: BIBLE ... Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, which I guess fits, but first of all people need to know that Bible means book or a collection of writings. The Holy Bible is a collection of God- inspired writings used to teach of God and the Way of our reconciliation to God. Our sins, which have separated us from God, must be removed, for God cannot be in the presence of sin, so that we can have a personal relationship with God. The Bible, God’s Word, instructs us in the way that will bring us into a sinless fellowship relationship with God, and what we must do to continue living as God wills us to live. We are made in the image of God, spirit. One day my spirit will return to God and be judged as to what I did in the body. I can stand righteous before God.

Thomas W. Bonham is an associate minister with the Floresville Church of Christ. Email him at twbonham@hotmail.com. Find his column on his blog at http://wilsoncountynews.com.